For persistence, Oracle's app server can auto-generate mapping between
an EJB and the database. It supports three levels of clustering that include
Web cache clusters. Application failover is also supported.

''We've done a lot of optimizations for Java object caching, as well
as to our Web cache, which is, in our case, the Apache server,'' noted
John Magee, vice president, development tools at Oracle. Caching frequently
requested pages in memory has value as JSP growth increases, he said.

Oracle recently announced some of the elements to be expected in a 2003
version. Like its chief competitors, Oracle is making significant product
moves in the area of manageability.

''Managing clusters is the focus of our next release,'' Magee explained.
''We want to get mainframe levels of scalability and maintainability,
but on clustered configurations of [rack-mount] hardware.

''We want you to be able to manage it all as if it were a single configuration,''
he said.